Inspiration

I have been helping to run a co operative gallery shop project since December. The shop has just relaunched for the spring/summer and we shall be holding numerous events and shows in the next few months.

I also have some new work showing there and am offering spray paint tutorials over the Easter holidays.

Woah, 2013 has been increasingly busy, what with the ART SCHISM gallery shop carrying on and numerous projects to kick off the year.

Here are some of the boxes that have shown up in Jan/Feb.

I still have a few of the Christmas ones to cover. If you have any requests for things that you would like to see on a box then please like and share my FB page and comment or message. Only cartoon ideas please. No Logos or marketing I’m afraid.

The Sinna One Spray Can rose is here. Made from one whole spray can, that at some point painted one of the many walls, boxes or characters that I have created over the years. I have always been bothered about the fact that when I finish a can, there are dregs left in the bottom that I can’t reach.

I pierce the can, release the dregs, use these as a background on a canvas or painting and then make the rest if the can in to a rose.

Set in to concrete, thus encompassing the life of spray paint from the can on to the wall, and then finished with a felt bottom, to stop it from scratching the table.

These little beauties are now available at the Art Schism shop in Brighton.

It’s flipping freezing out there at the moment, but has that stopped me?

Hell no!

My paint stained fingers have taking such a cold bashing in the last five days and they shall continue to do so until the advent is up. So here are the first few and expect to see more. Every day. Watch this space….

I must start by apologising for my horrendous lack of posts in recent weeks. I have been up to my eyeballs in projects and organising stuff that i just haven’t had the time to even blink at my wordpress.

So, SORRY!!

Right then, here is something that I’ve been involved with in the last week and that is the launch of a new pop up shop, just in time for December. If you are in Brighton this month then you should definitely come down and check it out.

Showing work from over 20 artists, we have an amazing array of arts and crafts that you wont find many other places this December.

You really can’t go wrong with purchases from this shop. And not only that but the majority of artists have submitted a one colour design for a screen print which you can get exclusively in store and see it being printed in front of your very eyes on to tee shirts and paper!!

We are open from the 1st Dec until the 24th. Mon- Sat 10am – 7pm Sun 11am – 5pm.

So we hit the end of may, and it was bloody sunny. Yay!! Got all of the boxes painted. Now June is here and it’s equally as rainy, so cannae get out to paint boxes again!!

So, just before the end of the festival, I went out on one scorching morning and painted the final box of the festival. Nice spot, in front of Brighton pier. The amazing Mr Hopes of Pooka Photography came along and documented the event and put this rather lovely timelapse together, alongside my favourite remix of Caribou’s SUN – remixed by FYBE : ONE of Shades of Grey recordings

This years Brighton Festival began on Sat 5th May and to help launch the whole shebang I was asked to help deliver a small series of Yarn Bombs.

‘Yarn Bombing?’ I thought to myself. I was aware of the concept, but I had never knitted anything in my life. And the small amount of time left before the launch of the festival was full of other work to be done and was definitely not the time for me to be learning crochet skills. Luckily I knew just the people to get involved.

My good friend, and fellow artist, Mazcan had been chatting to me about this street art movement just days before I was asked about the project. She had created some little crochet woolies for some bollards at an event for White Night 2011 in Brighton and had enjoyed it so much that she was now eyeing up lamp posts around town to make their lives a little cosier.

I also know a group of girls who hold a regular ‘Stitch and Bitch’ evening. From this group, a young lady called Tora Huston, who is a whizz with the knitting needles and regularly knits fantastic outfits for festival attire and bizarre toys as gifts for friends. WIN!

Also from this group is a super seamstress extrordinaire by the name of Scarletti. Again, another amazing outfitter who had created such delights as a badger hoodie (MINE!), a sand crab hoodie, Max suit ( where the wild things are), Big Love Yeti fluff and, well, the list goes on and on…

Last and not least, another fabrics whizz and knitter of beards, yes, BEARDS! Charlie Bear or Charlie at Crafternoon. This young lady holds creative workshops and makes costumes for festivals and carnivals and carnival festivals. Never a dull moment at her nipple tassle making workshops, she jumped at the chance to come and do some fabric based art for the breasts, er, I mean streets!

So with knitting needles and sewing machines at the ready, we only had one more task to overcome. How do we get the logo on to fabric.

Cue Monsieur James Alias at Patch-Works.Net. His skill, expertise and embroidery printer completed the look and sealed the deal by creating the Brighton Festival logo in fabric.

With the work now complete, the team took to the streets of Brighton in the dead of night and aided by our 10 foot companion, Scarletti, they were able to reach the tops of the lamp posts. Which was good as we didn’t have a ladder.

The Yarn bombs are now in place and you can see them if you visit New Road in Brighton. They shall be up for the duration of the festival and maybe even longer. Keep an eye out and you may even see more in the near future.

NB: Not all of the lamp posts were ‘Yarn’ Bombed. Some had fabric and applique techniques. No Lamp Posts were harmed in the making of this project.

I have been working with an arts collective called CompARTment for a couple of years now and their ethos is to use empty or disused spaces for arts and events.

Brighton Fringe is once again upon us and this time compARTment have joined forces with other collectives to continue their mission in finding empty spaces.

The Waste of Space project is a collision of ideas in secret locations through a series of pop-up exhibitions, music, workshops and performances. The aim is for visitors to immerse themselves in a creative trail reviving empty spaces.

The preview of our first pop up opens tonight at 99 Church Rd, Hove. Doors open at 6pm.

Expect to see art from members of all of the collectives and a fresh new gallery space that shall be playing host to many different exhibits, workshops and events over the course of may. Also keep your eyes peeled for our other venues, which shall be updated over May on the Waste of Space site.

I shall be showing some work, and there will also be a GRAFIK WARFARE showcase happening on the 18th, 19th and 20th May. Expect for there to be amazing new artwork from Grafik Warfare members and friends and also some spray painting and street art workshops.

There is also a launch party on Friday the 5th May upstairs at the Albert.